<Anchor> The



government has announced a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 following the carbon-neutral scenario of 2050. Companies and environmental groups are protesting, but some say that the process of collecting opinions is too slow.



Jang Se-man is an environmental reporter.



<Reporter> The



carbon reduction target for 2030 announced by the Carbon Neutrality Committee is 40%, which is significantly higher than the previous reduction plan of 26.3%.



By 2030, the average annual reduction rate is 4.19%, which is a much more intense reduction plan than that of major countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States.



[Sunjin Yoon/Chairman of Carbon Neutrality: (About today's draft) We will hear opinions from various stakeholders and experts and come up with a final draft with more revised content.] The



2030 reduction plan is It directly affects us in that it becomes legally binding.



In particular, the proportion of manufacturing such as steel and chemical, which emits a lot of carbon, is 27%, which is much higher than that of the US and Europe.



The industry argues that reducing carbon emissions according to the government's plan will increase the burden on companies to purchase carbon credits, making it possible to reduce production.



In this case, it may lead to an increase in product prices and electricity rates for consumers.



On the other hand, if it fails to keep pace with the carbon neutral trend, it could be blocked by the carbon border tax barrier currently under discussion, which could weaken export competitiveness.



The industry protested against today's (8th) announcement, saying that it lacked preparation time, and environmental groups did not meet the recommendations of the international community.



The effect of greatly increasing the amount of reduction is huge, but there are also criticisms that the socialization of public opinion is hasty.



The Carbon Neutrality Committee held an online discussion forum to collect opinions only on the day of the announcement, and 19 cases were discussed among citizens' queries, and the average number of concurrent viewers on YouTube was only around 300.



(Video coverage: Gyun-jong Kim, video editing: Moo-hwan Cho)